Whistling Straits course manager Michael Lee says crews have been preparing for this weekend's tournament for years and are now working round the clock to keep it in top condition.
Justin Kabbes/Gannett Wisconsin Media

SHEBOYGAN – Each morning of the 2015 PGA Championship starts at 4:30 a.m. for Whistling Straits golf course manager Michael Lee and his staff of about 150 people.

Three days’ worth of work is crammed into three hours, Lee said, to keep the course at its high-caliber level. After the action dies down, the crew comes back to work again in the evening and continues into the early night.

More than half of the staff performs two tasks; conditioning the greens and hand-raking the more than 1,000 bunkers Whistling Straits is known for.

“The main thing is getting greens that are championship greens,” Lee said. “To do that, you have to maintain them in a way they will be able to handle those extreme and low mowing heights.”

It’s a moment Lee has been preparing for about five years. Every August during those years the staff have conducted a “mock championship,” Lee said, conditioning the greens to PGA standards and practicing for this year’s event.

Nearly all the managerial staff, including Lee, are veterans of the last PGA Championship hosted at the course in 2010. That experience has been invaluable, said Lee, who has maintained Straits for about two decades.

“Everyone really knows what they’re doing,” Lee said. “They can ask good questions. They can anticipate things. They know how to execute and communicate to their staff.”

The course may look somewhat different to golfers who were at the event in 2010. Several of the greens have been made smaller — the empty space replaced with sand, mounds and dunes, Lee said, although the changes were less extensive this year than for championships past.

Tiger Woods, a 14-time major-tournament champion, said Tuesday he has never seen mosquitoes as bad as they are at Whistling Straits.

“I've never seen mosquitoes like this, like they've had here,” Woods said. “I live in Florida and we go out in the evenings and you may get beaten, but here you get eaten alive.”

Lee said Woods may be thinking of his experience playing the course in 2010, however the mosquitoes aren’t as active this year. Lake midges, which may be mistaken for mosquitoes, Lee said, are common; however, they don’t bite or harm people.

The course doesn’t have an abatement plan but the PGA hired people to employ larvacide in preparation for the tournament, he said.

Whistling Straits has quickly gained notoriety since its founding in 1998. The course has hosted three PGA Championships, including its first in 2004, and will host the Ryder Cup in 2020. The consistent scheduling of championships has put the course on the map globally, Lee said. And the course is only getting better with age.

“Time has really been good,” Lee said. “Whistling Straits has really naturalized nicely and filled in. I think it’s just improved the look of the golf course and we’re seeing that.”

What makes Whistling Straits distinctive is the sheer scale of the course, Lee said.

“This is an enormous piece of property,” Lee said. “1,000 bunkers, 60-foot dunes, fairways that are wide and spread out. This is just a huge scale and I think that’s what really takes people back and is the most breathtaking part of this golf course.”

Now that the years of work have come to fruition, Lee can enjoy a sense of accomplishment.

“It’s without words to see how gratifying this is to see all these people come in and look at this golf course that you day in and day out take care of,” Lee said. “It’s just a great thing to host and to be able to provide that for all these spectators.”